[Khaama (Afghanistan)] A local leader of the Taliban group was killed along with his fighters during an operation in Kabul...the capital of Afghanistan. Home to continuous fighting from 1992 to 1996 between the forces of would-be strongman and Pak ISI/Jamaat-e-Islami sock puppet Gulbuddin Hekmayar and the Northern Alliance, a period which won Hek the title Most Evil Man in the World and didn't do much for the reputations of the Northern Alliance guys either.... province.

The Ministry of Defense (MoD) said the local Taliban leader Rahim Gul was killed with his two fighters in Surobi district.

The hard boyz were killed during a joint military operation which was conducted in the past 24 hours, MoD added.

According to the Ministry of Defense, at least eight hard boyz were killed during a separate operation in Garamser district of Helmand...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan...A heavy machine and vehicle used by the hard boyz were also destroyed during the operation, MoD said, adding that the operations were conducted with the support of the artillery unit of the Afghan army and the Afghan Air Force.

[Khaama (Afghanistan)] At least six employees of the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) were rubbed out in northern Afghanistan.

According to the preliminary reports, the ICRC employees were rubbed out by the loyalists of the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) terrorist group.

A local government official in Jawzjan confirmed that the ICRC workers were executed in Qoshtapa district.

The official speaking on the condition of anonymity further added that two other ICRC workers were kidnapped and there are no reports regarding their fate.

"Six staff members of the International Committee of the Red Thingy (ICRC) have been shot and killed in Afghanistan. Two staff members are unaccounted for," a statement by ICRC said.

The statement further added that the team, composed of three drivers and five field officers, was on its way to deliver much-needed livestock materials in an area south of the town of Shibergan in Jawzan province and their convoy was attacked by unknown gunnies.

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is putting its aid activities across Afghanistan "on hold" following the killing of six Afghan staff, a senior ICRC official said on Wednesday.

Islamic State gunmen were suspected of killing at least six Afghan employees of the ICRC on Wednesday as they carried supplies to areas in the north of the country hit by deadly snow storms, government officials said.

Dominik Stillhart, ICRC director of operations worldwide, told Reuters Television in Geneva: "As we speak our operations are on hold indeed, because we need to understand what exactly happened before we can hopefully resume our operations."

[LibyaHerald] This afternoon clashes erupted in Abu Sleem and Salahedeen districts in Tripoli between the Abu Sleem Central Security Force belonging to Abdul Ghani Al-Kikli (a.k.a. Ghneiwa) and gunmen loyal to Salah Al-Burki, most of them from Misrata. Reports tonight indicate tanks and heavy mortar are being used. There was shooting in Ain Zara and Tajoura.

Residents in Abu Sleem are staying at home and the streets are empty.

“The shooting hasn’t stopped since the early afternoon. We don’t dare go out to see what’s happening,” a local resident told the Libya Herald.

He added he had heard the Burki unit had destroyed a Ghneiwa position in retaliation for a similar action by it.

Both the Ghneiwa and Burki militias have fought each other in the past. The former are linked to the Presidency Council. Those of Birki support Khalifa Ghwell, the former “prime minister” of the so-called national salvation government.

The reason for the clashes are not immediately clear, although on its Facebook page belonging to the Ghneiwa forces it said it was dealing with an armed gang that had stolen nine cars in the area.

The militia also posted a couple of days ago the apparent confessions of two men accused of kidnapping and robbery and said to belong to the “Libyan National Guards”.

The latter unit also supports Khalifa Ghwell.

It has been using the Rixos complex and the forest surrounding as its headquarters. Eyewitnesses report the increasing spread of checkpoints the Rixos area. As part of a military building in the area, the Misratan Marsa brigade announced today the arrival of 300 armoured vehicles to Tripoli, belonging to LNG.

Meanwhile, Ghwell chaired a meeting this morning at the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) to follow up on the general power cuts that have crippled Libya in the past month. It was reported foreign representatives attended.

In contrast, calm returned to Janzour as schools reopened following a two-day hiatus. Representatives from the ministry of education visited two of them today to check on their situation and inspect examination procedures.

Intense fighting erupted six days ago in the area and continued despite a ceasefire being agreed between Janzour militias and the neighbouring Wirshefana, mediated by local elders.

However, further complicating the situation, social media images today appeared to show Ghwell greeting fighters at Bridge 17 in Janzour, where the fighting initially erupted. It is also claimed he visited the checkpoint at Camp 27, further west. It is in Wirshefana territory.

[CBSNEWS] Nigerian soldiers on Tuesday disarmed two jacket wallahs who were strapped with explosives killing one and saving the others life. Police said they were believed to be prepared by Boko Haram... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...turbans to attack the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

After being ordered to halt by two soldiers who were on guard duty, the two females whom witnesses believe to be as young as 18 years old continued to move towards a gas station. Soldiers then shot and killed one of the women, while the second then surrendered.

Both were wearing explosive jackets but were disarmed by the soldiers according to police front man Victor Isuku.

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Yemeni national forces and popular resistance have captured the city of al-Mokha from the hands of Houthi ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The Yemeni government has accused the Houthis of having ties to the Iranian government, which wouldn't suprise most of us. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews ...militiamen, the Arab coalition leadership in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...confirmed.

With the intensive support of coalition fighters and Apache helicopters, Yemeni resistance forces managed to seize control of most of the city’s neighborhoods. The national army and resistance are still fighting remnants of the Houthi militias and President-for-Life Ali Abdullah Saleh... Saleh initially took power as a strongman of North Yemen in 1977, when disco was in flower, but he didn't invite Donna Summer to the inauguration and Blondie couldn't make it...’s forces, that withdrew to the outskirts of the city from the northern and western fronts.

Meanwhile,...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... Arab Coalition military ships and Apache helicopters bombed the regions of Taif, Nakhila and Zabid in the southern city of Hodeida on the Yemeni west coast.

Aircrafts also launched raids on militia sites near the port of Mokha and Khaled camp in the east. According to a military source, intermittent festivities took place in the vicinity of Mokha.

Arab Coalition aircrafts similarly targeted militia sites in Hodeidah, near the south of Hajjah governorate. Military sources reported the death of 26 Houthis, including field commander Mohammed Mahdi al-Barti following battles in the Yemeni highlands overlooking the eastern side of Saada province.

According to the leadership of Taiz, the National Army and popular resistance repelled Houthi and Saleh militias’ attack that targeted the south-eastern city of Taiz, killing two soldiers and injuring others during the festivities. Popular resistance sources have announced that the militia artillery pounded houses in Dhabab, Khamseen and Rabihi areas in the western side of Taiz.

[AnNahar] The EU warned Wednesday that it will consider punishing member states next month if they fail to share the burden of asylum seekers stranded in Greece and Italy. European Commission vice president Frans Timmermans criticized the bloc for having so far admitted only 12,000 of the 160,000 Syrian and other refugees required to be relocated from Greece and Italy to other EU countries by September this year.

He said Brussels still hoped "peer pressure" would convince recalcitrant countries, but that it would consider penalties if there had been no progress by the time its next report on the issue comes out in March.

EU countries can be hit with large financial penalties by the commission, the executive arm of the 28-nation bloc, if they break the union's rules.

Timmermans added that it was "highly unfair" to leave overstretched Greece and Italy to try to persuade other countries, particularly Eastern European states where there is resistance to Muslim immigration.

[AlAhram] German authorities searched homes and other properties in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia and Britain on Wednesday to gather evidence about two suspects believed to have supported the Islamist group "Jabhat al-Nusra," the chief federal prosecutor's office said.

"The two suspects are believed to have supported the foreign terrorist group JAN for several years," the office said in a statement.

They allegedly collected donations for the Islamist group and supplied ambulances, medical equipment and medication through groups called "Medicine with Heart" and "Medicine without Borders," it said. There was no mention of any specific attack preparations in the case.

[AlAhram] German police on Tuesday arrested a Syrian man on suspicion of belonging to the Islamic State (IS) militant group and of raping a woman as she attempted to flee an IS-held area in Syria with her children, officials said. The 31-year-old suspect, named as Akram A., was detained in the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomeria, the federal prosecutor's office said in a statement.

Prosecutors allege that he manned a checkpoint in Syria that sought to prevent citizens from escaping IS-controlled territory. In early 2016, he stopped a woman who was trying to flee with her children, they said.

"Under the pretext of obtaining the necessary 'exit permit', the accused lured her to a house and raped her," prosecutors said in the statement.

[Ynet] Spain's Interior Ministry says two Moroccan who are accused of indoctrination in Islamist extremism and recruiting others have been detained in Barcelona. The ministry said in a statement that the men, aged 25 and 27, allegedly raised money through drug trafficking and theft to support the Islamic State group. Agents of Spain's Guardia Civil police were searching the men's apartment on Tuesday morning in Badalona, a city next to Barcelona, for further evidence.

[Ynet] Hungary plans to detain migrants while their asylum requests are assessed, a ruling party lawmaker said on Wednesday, a proposal that human rights campaigners said could be illegal. The plan will be part of the spring legislative agenda of the Fidesz party of Prime Minister Viktor Orban, whose popular hardline stance on immigration may help him retain power at an election early next year.

Under the plan, migrants whose asylum applications are not immediately rejected would no longer be allowed to move freely while their requests are processed, Fidesz parliamentary group leader Lajos Kosa told a news conference.

Cologne Police Apologise after Suggesting Migrants Stay Away from Carnival
7 Feb 2017
Police in northern Germany have been forced to apologise after a draft email suggesting migrants should be kept away from carnival celebrations was leaked to migrant organisations, prompting accusations of racism.

Angela Merkel Rules Out Migrant Cap
7 Feb 2017
As pressure mounts on German Chancellor Angela Merkel ahead of this year’s election, the chancellor has flat out refused to place a limit on the number of asylum seekers coming into the country.

German Regions Refuse To Deport Afghan Migrants
7 Feb 2017
Despite the German federal government’s plan to deport thousands of failed Afghan asylum seekers, German regions are not cooperating and claim Afghanistan has become far too dangerous.

Migrant Protesters Confront Greek Minister
6 Feb 2017
Greek and refugee protesters have confronted the country’s migration minister at the entrance of a sprawling migrant camp in the south of Athens, trying to stop him from entering the site.

Italian Rescuers Pick Up 1,500 Migrants in Mediterranean in Two Days
6 Feb 2017
Some 1,500 migrants have been rescued in the Mediterranean this weekend, an unusually high number for winter when crossings tend to slow because of difficult sea conditions, the Italian coastguard said Sunday.

Islamic State Paying Migrants’ Smuggling Fees if They Join Jihad
5 Feb 2017
Islamic State (IS) has targeted hundreds of ‘refugees’ and migrants heading towards Europe, calling on them to wage Jihad on the West and offering to their pay people smugglers if they join.

Police Officer: Almost All Serious Crime Committed By Migrants
5 Feb 2017
Migrants are to blame for the vast majority of serious crime in Sweden causing the police force to become overloaded, a detective has said. In an exasperated rant in Swedish on Facebook the officer, Peter Springare, conceded it was not

Cyprus Official Says 700 Migrants Could Land in Next Week
5 Feb 2017
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Up to 700 migrants could arrive on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus next week on smuggling trips from Turkey, a top Cypriot official said Saturday, hours after 93 migrants landed in the dark on the island’s northwestern shore.

Berlin Senate To Investigate Why Migrant Crime Stats So High
5 Feb 2017
The Berlin Senate has launched a formal inquiry as to why migrants are disproportionally mentioned in the city’s police crime reports in comparison to Germans. Berlin police say that migrants are more and more frequently recorded in their crime statistics

Father of Paris Louvre ‘Allahu Akbar’ Attacker: My Son Is Not Radicalised
4 Feb 2017
CAIRO (AFP) – The father of an Egyptian suspected of being the machete attacker in Paris’s Louvre museum said Saturday his son showed no sign of radicalisation and he believed in his innocence. Reda El-Hamahmy, a retired police general, told AFP he

Sweden To Ban Gender-Segregated Classrooms
4 Feb 2017
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Sweden’s education minister wants to ban gender-segregated classes after last year’s public outcry after a Muslim school was allowed to separate boys and girls for gym classes. Gustav Fridolin says “if there are problems by having

‘Anti-Migrant’ Gun Shop Shut Down, Database of Customers Handed to Cops
3 Feb 2017
An anti-migrant website called “Migrant Fear” has been shut down and its customers investigated by German authorities for purchasing pistols and rifles that fire rubber bullets.

Historian: European Civil War Within 30 Years
3 Feb 2017
Belgian historian David Engels claims a civil war in the next 20 years is inevitable as he sees parallels between Europe and the fall of the Roman Republic.

[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] Belgian police detained 11 people after a series of raids across Brussels overnight as part of an investigation into possible returning fighters from Syria.

The federal prosecutors said in a statement on Wednesday that police had carried out searches at nine addresses in various districts of the Belgian capital and one district outside. No weapons are explosives were found.

A judge will determine later on Wednesday whether those detained would have to remain in jug.

Prosecutors said the case was not related to its investigations into the Gay Paree attacks of November 2015 and the Brussels bombings in March 2016.

[OMANTRIBUNE] French police have tossed in the clinkYouse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! a dozen people in a fourth straight night of confrontation with youths in suburbs, north of Gay Paree, with tension sparked by accusations of police violence spreading to new areas, a police representative said.

Yves Lefebvre told franceinfo public radio that about 10 vehicles were torched as young people hurled petrol bombs in standoffs with law-enforcement officers in a region north of the capital where more serious rioting drew world-wide attention in 2005.

"There were further violent showdowns overnight," Lefebvre said.

While much more limited than 12 years ago, the unrest served as a reminder of the simmering tension in neighbourhoods with higher than average unemployment and large immigrant populations.

La Belle Franceinfo said a bus driver was treated for minor injuries after his vehicle was hit by a petrol bomb.

"Sadly these neighbourhoods have been turned into ghettos," Lefebvre of the SGP police union said, saying police were not sufficiently trained or equipped to deal with life in the gritty high-rise housing sprawls in the region ringing Gay Paree.

The trouble began in Aulnay-sous-Bois several days ago after four coppers were suspended pending an inquiry into accusations they had used excessive force while arresting a 22-year-old man there.

One of the coppers involved in the man’s arrest on February 2 has been placed under formal investigation for suspected rape and three others for unnecessary violence.

President Francois Hollande...the Socialist president of La Belle France, an economic bad joke for la Belle France but seemingly a foreign policy realist... visited the victim on Tuesday at the Aulnay hospital where he is being treated for injuries.

Lefebvre said the skirmishes on Tuesday night were mainly in towns around Aulnay-sous-Bois, which itself was relatively calm.

[Khaama (Afghanistan)] The Pak authorities have claimed the security forces tossed in the clinkMaw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! four ISIS loyalists as they were receiving treatment in a hospital in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (formerly known as the North-West Frontier Province), administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistan's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire. city.

The officials have said the arrested ISIS loyalists were handed over to the Afghan authorities.

A local official in Pakistain’s Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa... formerly NWFP, still Terrorism Central... province Niaz Muhammad has said the turbans had crossed to Pakistain after they were maimed during the festivities with the security forces in eastern NangarharThe unfortunate Afghan province located adjacent to Mohmand, Kurram, and Khyber Agencies. The capital is Jalalabad. The province was the fief of Younus Khalis after the Soviets departed and one of his sons is the current provincial Taliban commander. Nangarhar is Haqqani country.. province of Afghanistan.

The suspected turbans were identified as Javed Khan, Niamtullah, Safiullah and Taaliman, according to the local newspaper, Dawn.

The report further added that All the turbans belonged to Afghanistan’s Nangarhar district and had illegally crossed into Pakistain.

"Pakistain will never let its soil be used against Afghanistan and today’s move is a gesture toward peaceful Afghanistan," he said.

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Iraqi army generals and media services said Wednesday forces killed 26 Islamic State militants in separate locations in Mosul, while bringing down drones guided by the extremist group.

Col. Adel al-Jubouri, from the Iraqi Joint Operations Command, told Bas News that security forces shot down three Islamic State-guided drones that were heading to bomb civilians in the districts of al-Zohour, al-Masaref, al-Seddiq and al-Sukkar north of Mosul. Government forces had recaptured those districts from IS as part of operations between mid October and January 24th that drove extremists out of eastern Mosul.

In a separate encounter, Jubouri said, troops killed five Islamic State militants who attempted to sneak into Rashidya neighborhood, north of Mosul.

Meanwhile, the Defense Ministry’s War Media Cell said 21 other militants were killed in an army airstrike in Umm al-Zanabir, south of western Mosul’s strategic city of Tal Afar. Three 4WD vehicles belonging to the group were also destroyed in the strike, according to the media service.

Iraqi forces are awaiting top commanders orders to invade Islamic State strongholds in western Mosul.

The United Nations, American and Iraqi military officials have recently reiterated that Islamic State’s days in Iraq were numbered, given the group’s continuous finance and personnel losses over the past months.

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) A Counter-Terrorism Officer announced on Wednesday, that violent clashes erupted between security forces and the Islamic State’s militants, during a raid in eastern Mosul.

Colonel Khodier Saleh said in a press statement, “Violent clashes erupted between the Islamic State’s militants and security forces that carried out an extensive search operation in al- Darkazlia area, in eastern the city of Mosul.”

“The clashes resulted in the killing of 16 members of the Islamic State, mostly from foreign nationalities, as well as arresting 17 others, including two suicide bombers,” Saleh added.

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Four Islamic State militants were killed on Wednesday when military jets bombed a small boat they were boarding off the western bank of Tigris River in Mosul, Alsumaria News quoted a local source as saying.

Over the past two weeks, Islamic State militants have reportedly made several attempts to cross the river, which bisects the city, to wage attacks against security troops which became in full control over the eastern side since January 24th. Security officials have said they foiled those attacks and killed several militants. The group had lost more than 3000 of its fighters since security operations to retake Mosul launched in October.

The Iraqi government has yet to give directives to the security leaderships to carry on with a ground invasion of Islamic State strongholds in the west. Iraqi and U.S. generals predict more difficult battles there due to the existence of 750.000 civilians in mostly narrow residential areas. Iraqi and international coalition jets have recently bombed militants locations in western Mosul preparing for the next phase of operations.

The conflict in Mosul has forced at least 191.000 civilians to seek shelter at refugee camps, and the United Nations had predicted turmoil to force at least one million people out of home.

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) On Wednesday a security source in Nineveh Province declared that a person was killed, while 19 others were wounded by a drone attack carried out by the Islamic State on the liberated areas in the city of Mosul.

The source said, “The Islamic State group’s drones dropped bombs on Jazair neighborhood, east of Mosul, killing a civilian and wounded six others, including five volunteers.”

“The Islamic State also bombed al-Arabi neighborhood and Sayediti al-Jamila area in Mosul, wounding 13 persons, including six members of al-Hashd al-Shaabi.”

In January 25th 2017, Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi announced liberating the eastern side of Mosul from the Islamic State completely.

Nineveh/ Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) Al-Hashd al-Shaabi (Popular Mobilization Units) said Wednesday they killed 20 Islamic State militants in western Mosul, while two of its fighters were killed hours earlier in an attack by the extremist group in Salahuddin.

The force’s media service said in a statement it killed 20 Islamic State militants, including four wearing explosive belts, after a failed attack by the militants on al-Hajaf, in the town of Tal Abta, west of Mosul. It said three vehicles used by IS were destroyed in the encounters.

Al-Hashd launched recently a new phase of operations against IS around the group’s strategic stronghold town of Tal Afar.

Also on Wednesday, DPA reported that two PMU fighters were killed and five others were wounded in attacks by IS late Tuesday at al-Dour, Salahuddin province. It quoted a security source saying that combat reinforcements forced the militants back to their launching point at Mutaibija region, 30 km east of Samarra, after fierce battles.

The source said the attack at al-Dour began with an explosion of a booby-trapped car driven by an IS suicide bomber before a mortar shell landed on a residential compound in the area. The situation prompted a brief curfew at al-Dour, said the source.

Al-Hashd al-Shaabi, an alliance of dozens of Shia militias, which won government recognition as a national force, has been actively fighting Islamic State since its formation in 2014. It made remarkable victories in western Mosul late 2016 when it recaptured major Islamic State bastions near Tal Afar.

Late January, PMUs launched an operation to clear roads linking Mosul with Salahuddin and Baghdad.

Since its inception, al-Hashd grappled with accusations by international human rights groups and Sunni powers of committing abuses against Sunni civilians. The Iraqi government has eagerly defended the force against the claims.

Salahuddin (IraqiNews.com) A security source in Salahuddin revealed that army forces killed a suicide bomber, after trying to attack the headquarters of the army’s 9th brigade, north of the province, Alsumaria News reported on Wednesday.

The source said, “A member of the Islamic State group, wearing a suicide vest, was trying to storm into the headquarters of the army’s 9th brigade in al-Daur District, north of Salahuddin Province.”

“The army forces shot the suicide bomber before reaching the headquarters, killing him and detonating the explosive vest,” the source added on condition of anonymity.

“The attack did not result in any casualties among the army ranks,” the source further explained.

Anbar (IraqiNews.com) An army officer and a lower rank soldier were killed on Wednesday when a roadside bomb exploded on a highway wast of Anbar, according to a security source.

The explosive device exploded when an army patrol was passing on a highway west of Ramadi, a security source in the province told Alsumaria News.

Islamic State has stepped attacks across Iraq coinciding with defeats it has been sustaining in Mosul, its largest stronghold in Iraq of which Iraqi government troops have recaptured a half since October.

The group has maintained smaller strongholds in western Anbar towns since 2014, but no official campaign has been declared yet by the government to drive militants out of those regions as the Iraqi government invests most of its military effort in Mosul. Anbar’s security command, backed by tribal troops, launched early January a brief onslaught against the Islamic State in western Anbar, and managed retake a few villages before halting again.

Iraqi and U.S-led coalition air forces regularly carry out airstrikes targeting IS hideouts in western Anbar, killing several militants and destroying defensive facilities belonging to the extremist group.

On Tuesday, a roadside bomb planted at al-Sakkar region, west of the province, killed two army personnel.

[Jpost] Two people were reportedly killed and five were hurt in the southern Gaza Strip on Thursday in an "Israeli attack" on an underground tunnel along the border between Gaza and Egypt, according to Hamas's Health Ministry.

[Ynet] Iron Dome intercepts 3 rockets from the Egyptian peninsula, 1 falls in open area; IDF retaliates for mortar fire in north by attacking Syrian military post in Quneitra.

Four rockets were fired at the southern city of Eilat on Wednesday night from the Sinai Peninsula, with three intercepted by the Iron Dome missile-defense system and fourth falling in an open area. Earlier in the evening, an errant mortar shell from Syria fell inside Israel, with the IDF attacking a Syrian army post in retaliation.

At 10:54pm, a Code Red rocket alert was sounded in the city, followed by a second siren a minute later.

Israel's air defense system, the Iron Dome, successfully intercepted three of the rockets that were fired from the Egyptian territory, where ISIS-affiliated terrorist fight against the regime. The fourth rocket landed in an open area, causing no damage.

Fragments from the intercepted rockets were discovered in a swimming pool in the city.

The last time rockets were fired at Eilat was during Operation Protective Edge, in July 2014. At the time, two rockets managed to strike at the center of the city, one of them near a hotel.

Syrian war spillover in north
Earlier in the evening, a mortar shell fired from a tank in Syria went kaboom! in open territory in the Golan Heights along Israel's northern border. The IDF attacked a Syrian army post in retaliation.

The IDF believes the shell was not intentionally fired at Israel, but was rather spillover from the fighting near the border between the Syrian army and rebels trying to topple Syrian Hereditary President-for-Life Bashir Pencilneck al-AssadLord of the Baath...A Syrian official told Lebanese TV network Al Mayadeen that "the Israeli attack was done using a helicopter that launched a missile from Israeli territory towards structures in Madinat al-Baath in Quneitra."

He said the army post that was targeted was facing posts of the al-Qaeda affiliated terror group Jabhat al-Nusra...formally Jabhat an-Nusrah li-Ahli al-Sham (Support Front for the People of the Levant), also known as al-Qaeda in the Levant. They aim to establish a pan-Arab caliphate. Not the same one as the Islamic State, though .. .... No injuries were reported.

[IsraelTimes] The Shin Bet security service said Wednesday that it had uncovered a Hamas, a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth", and Islamic Jihad...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... operation to transfer cash from the Gazoo Strip to operatives in the West Bank.

The Gazoo-based terror organizations would send debit cards loaded with funds, either via the mail or smuggled by couriers through the Erez Crossing from Gazoo into Israel.

West Bank members then withdrew the money from ATMs for use to fund terror attacks, the Shin Bet said.

Two suspects from Gazoo and the West Bank were detained by Israeli security forces for questioning during November and December, according to a Shin Bet statement.

Gazoo City resident Salim Tutah, 26, received a permit to enter Israel to work as a tractor driver for a Paleostinian contractor doing projects for the american government aid agency USAID in the West Bank.

Tutah confessed during interrogation to handing over a debit card loaded with thousands of shekels designated for the Islamic Jihad group. He had received the card from Hamas operatives on the Paleostinian side of the Erez Crossing.

Ismail Huamda, 26, a Hamas member from the village of al-Samu near Hebron, received another debit card through a courier and was ordered to withdraw funds, the agency said.

The Shin Bet said this was another example of the terror group "cynically exploiting" the fact that Israel allows thousands of Gazoo residents to enter Israel for humanitarian needs.

Syrian Army and Armed Forces units, in cooperation with supporting forces and covered by the Air Force, destroyed on Wednesday gatherings for ISIL terrorists in the surrounding of Deir Ezzor city.

SANA’s reporter in the province said that the army units, backed by supporting forces, engaged in fierce clashes with ISIL terrorists in the surroundings of the graveyards area at the southern outskirts of Deir Ezzor city, which resulted in achieving new advance in the area and inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists in personnel and weaponry.

The reporter added that the Air Force targeted with concentrated strikes the movements, vehicles, and gatherings of ISIL terrorists in the intersection of al-Tharda area south of the airport, destroying many of their vehicles, a mortar launcher, and a heavy machinegun.

The reporter also said that airstrikes were carried out against ISIL positions and movements in the areas of factories, al-Makabbat, Seriet Jnied, and the Electricity company south of Deir Ezzor city, inflicting heavy losses upon the terrorists.

Homs

Army units carried an expanded operation against positions for ISIL terrorists in the eastern countryside of Homs, killing 12 of them.

SANA reporter said an army unit achieved new advance in hunting down ISIS terrorists on the southern axis of al-Bayarat area to the west of Palmyra city, killing and injuring many of the terrorists.

The reporter confirmed that a gathering of vehicles and terrorists’ equipment in air raids on their dens and movements in the area.

Another air raid was carried out on an ISIL position in Palmyra city, leaving 12 terrorists dead and three vehicles destroyed.

In the northern countryside of Homs, the source said the Syrian Air Force carried out a sortie on movements and sites of al-Nusra Front terrorists in Deir Foul and Izz Eddin, destroying a vehicle equipped with machine gun and killing a number of terrorists.

Four persons were killed and three others were injured in a terrorist attack with rocket shells on Daraa city in the southern province of Daraa.

SANA reporter in the province said the terrorist organizations fired a number of rocket shells on al-Manshiyeh neighborhood in Daraa al-Balad, claiming the lives of 4 persons and injuring 3 others and causing material damage to citizens’ houses and properties.

Meanwhile, two persons were killed in a terrorist rocket attack on al-Hamdaniyeh neighborhood in Aleppo city.

A source at Aleppo Police Command told SANA that terrorist groups targeted citizens’ houses in al-Hamdaniyeh neighborhood with a number of rocket shells.

The source added that due to the attack, two persons were killed, 14 others were injured and significant material damage was caused to the locals’ properties.

Later, the source said that 5 children were killed when a mine of those left behind byterrorist organizations in Bustan al-Qassr in Aleppo went off.

In Sweida, two people were killed by terrorist’s gunfire in Ku’a Hadar area in the northern countryside of Sweida province.

A source in the province told SANA that a terrorist group opened fire on a passing car on the road between Shahba and al-Liwa in Ku’a Hadar area, killing two people who were inside it.

[EN.ZAMANALWSL.NET] US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces on Wednesday took three villages from ISIS north of Raqqa city, spokeswoman told Zaman al-Wasl.

Jihan Ahmed, spokeswoman of the operation room of Euphrates Wrath said that their forces at the axis of Makman have reached to the village of Abo Wahel, 26 km to the North-Eastern of Raqqa, mentioning that festivities were still ongoing till the time of the announcement.

The spokeswoman added in her statement to Zaman al-Wasl that SDF has controlled villages of al-Wash, Abo Hussein and Ghazal, beside controlling to hills, 11 km away from northern of Raqqa, beside besieging the village of Mlihan, northern-East of Raqqa.

Ahmed confirmed that US-led alliance warplanes are actively participating and cooperating with them in the operation , as the Arclight airstrikes have the most important effect in the battle against the Islamic State...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.....

In the next door province of Hams, regime’s vacuum missiles killed three people on Tuesday, activists said as regime and rebels swapped dozens of women prisoners and hostages, some of them with their children.

The missile attack targeted the villages of al-Jaberiya, Aydoun and Senjar Farms.

Also, the aerial bombing on Kafr Zeita made the main hospital out of service as most equipment and medical stuff were destroyed, Free Health Directorate in Hama said.

[ENGLISH.ALARABIYA.NET] Syrian rebel forces supported by Turkish armed forces have seized control of strategically important hills around the ISIS-controlled town of al-Bab, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire....’s military said on Wednesday.

It said in a statement that 58 ISIS snuffies were killed in air strikes, artillery fire and festivities. Two Turkish soldiers had been killed and 15 slightly maimed.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the operations had made important progress and the next target would be the Syrian city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of ISIS.

The battle for al-Bab has raised the prospect of confrontation between the Turkish military and the Syrian army, which has pushed to within a few kilometres of the city’s southern outskirts.

A Syrian rebel official and a monitoring organization said the advancing forces had captured the western outskirts of al-Bab, some 30 km (20 miles) south of the Turkish border.

"With last night’s assault, ISIS’s defences have been broken through and the advance is now continuing," said the official, speaking from the Turkish city of Gaziantep. Turkish military reinforcements had been sent to the area about a week
ago, the rebel added.

Al-Bab has been a major target of a Turkish offensive launched in northern Syria last August to drive ISIS away from the border and prevent further gains by US-backed Kurdish militia that are also fighting the holy warriorgroup.

Syrian government forces and allied militia have mounted their own rapid advance towards al-Bab in the last few weeks. The city was encircled earlier this week when Syrian government forces cut the last way into the city. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based organization that reports on the war, said the Turkish forces and their Free Syrian Army... the more palatable version of the Syrian insurgency, heavily influenced by the Moslem Brüderbund... rebel allies had captured a hill on the western periphery of the city.

"We don’t know if ISIS (ISIS) will be able to recover it, or if it is in a state of collapse," Observatory Director Rami Abdulrahman said.

In a video sent by the rebel official, three Syrian rebel fighters with the Sultan Murad faction said they were speaking from inside al-Bab. It was not possible to confirm the authenticity of the footage.

"I am in Bab now but not at the centre. We are on the outskirts. Thank God, we have reached this place," said one of the rebels. Blasts were heard in the background.

The Observatory said at least six people had been killed and 12 more maimed in the latest shelling of al-Bab.

Turkish presidency sources said on Wednesday President Tayyip Erdogan and US President Donald Trump...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... agreed in a phone call overnight to act jointly against ISIS in al-Bab and Raqqa, another Syrian city held by ISIS.

The White House said in a statement that Trump spoke about the two countries’ "shared commitment to combating terrorism in all its forms" and welcomed Turkey’s contributions to the fight against ISIS, but it gave no further details.

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants have burned a number of civilians to death for collaborating with security forces, while executing members for escaping the city, a military source said Wednesday.

DPA quoted Col. Khaled al-Jawari as saying that the group burned 20 civilians to death over charges of providing information about the group to security forces via cell phones. The execution was carried out before a watching crowd in Wadi Hajar, south of Mosul, according to the military officer.

Meanwhile, the agency also quoted locals in Mosul’s western region as saying that Islamic State executed seven of its fighters after they attempted to flee one of its secret camps in the region.

Since it occupied large areas of Iraq in 2014, Islamic State has posted videos of heinous executions of civilians, security personnel, and foreign workers over multiple charges. Some of the executions were even carried out by little children.

Since encounters with Iraqi security forces began in mid October, there have been several reports about the group executing members for fleeing battlefields and civilians for collaboration with police and army troops.

Iraqi government forces recaptured eastern Mosul on January 24th after three months of battles, and are preparing to invade the western region to consummate the liberation of Mosul which fell in IS grip in 2014.

Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) Islamic State militants in western Mosul have begun to give out children medicines to paint a picture of a stable life, but local sources say the drugs turned out to be expired.

A local source told Alsumaria news said IS-run clinics have begun to distribute children medicines as part of a media campaign run by the extremist group to give an impression of stability while the group braces for a major offensive by government forces.

But the group is actually handing out the medicines “though knowing they are expired,” according to the source.

Islamic State is still in control over most of western Mosul, where 750.000 civilians have been trapped under the extremist group’s bloody reign for more than two years.

Mid October, Iraqi government forces, backed by international coalition troops led by the United States, launched a major offensive to retake Mosul, IS’s largest base in Iraq. Operations since then have managed to retake the eastern section of the city, and the government says it is close to giving a green light to its troops to invade the west.

The U.S. Department of Defense said Tuesday the group has become effectively stuck in western Mosul, with no choice other than fighting to death.

A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.

Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.

Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.